Yuxiao Peng (CHN), this year’s Dushanbe Grand Slam silver medallist, or Julie Hoelterhoff (GER), a medallist in Austria and Kazakhstan this year, could have caused problems. There are up-and-coming Korean and French judoka too but perhaps the biggest threat to Sampaio would come from Mami Umeki (JPN), a triple world medallist who became world champion in 2015. She has been on the World Judo Tour since 2012 and has a massive amount of experience to mix with her indisputable skill. The -78 kg category was certainly not a closed book.
The top two seeds, Sampaio and Umeki reached their respective semi-finals seamlessly, though, obeying the ranking and dominating their pools. Tatarchenko (IJF), the 4th seed, and Julie Hoelterhoff (GER), 3rd seed, did not do the same, the former having to fight for a last hope of reaching the final block, in the repechage. The German though, didn’t even make it past the first round. In fact, Tatarchenko had to settle for 7th place as her teammate took the repechage victory.
Final
Patricia Sampaio (POR) vs Mami Umeki (JPN)
Bronze medal contests
Aleksandra Babintseva (IJF) vs Liz Ngelebeya (FRA)
Hongtao Wu (CHN) vs Yuxiao Peng (CHN)
In the +78 kg category, France, China and Mongolia all entered athletes capable of claiming medals. Lea Fontaine (FRA) began her day at the top of the table though and gave no-one a chance to disturb her plan. She was patient and focused and found herself in the final after ippon wins in the preliminary session.
The rest of the field jostled for position but Fontaine was unlikely to be too worried by them. She was happy to let them fight it out for the remaining 3 medals. Mongolia expected strong performances from their 4-woman team but none could reach the final, two making it to bronze medal contests instead. Amarsaikhan lost out in the quarter-final to her teammate Dambadarjaa but did win in the repechage to secure her place in the final block, while Enkhmend lost out in the first round to Kholodilina (IJF) who in turn lost against Helena Vukovic (CRO).
Mongolia’s last entrant was Enkhzul Enkhbayar who was unable to find her rhythm against Liang (CHN) in the first round. Liang didn’t go all the way either, losing to her teammate, Jinesinuer Ayiman who went on to beat Vukovic in their semi-final with a fast shime-waza for ippon.
Final
Lea Fontaine (FRA) vs Jinesinuer Ayiman (CHN)
Bronze medal contests
Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan (MGL) vs Helena Vukovic (CRO)
Ye LIang (CHN) vs Nominzul Dambadarjaa (MGL)
